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Black Country, New Road

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Seven-piece from the Cambridgeshire scene turning klezmer-tinged chamber arrangements into something cathartic — now built around shared, passed-around vocals.

Black Country, New Road formed in Cambridge in 2018, largely out of Nervous Conditions, an earlier Cambridgeshire band that split that year after allegations against its frontman. The remaining musicians, mostly graduates of art and music schools, regrouped under a name Isaac Wood found by chance: a road in the West Midlands, turned up through Wikipedia's random-article button. Guitarist Luke Mark joined in 2019, making the group a seven-piece.

Early singles 'Athens, France' and 'Sunglasses', released in 2019 on the label Speedy Wunderground, paired sprawling, slow-building arrangements with saxophone, violin and keyboards, set against Isaac Wood's spoken and half-shouted vocals. They built a cult following strong enough that physical copies of the singles were reportedly resold for well over their original price.

Debut album For the First Time followed in 2021, reaching number four on the UK Albums Chart and earning a Mercury Prize nomination. Ants From Up There arrived in 2022 and went one place higher, but Wood left the band four days before its release, citing mental health struggles.

The remaining members carried on without replacing him, splitting lead vocals between Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw and Charlie Wayne. After touring through 2022 they released the concert film Live at Bush Hall in 2023, featuring songs written since Wood's departure. Later material pushed further into chamber pop and folk arrangement, with piano and woodwind more prominent, and a third album, Forever Howlong, followed in 2025.

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